Life is like that.

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
-- Theodore Isaac

Life is indeed difficult, partly because of the real difficulties we must overcome in order to survive, and partly because of our own innate desire to always do better, to overcome new challenges, to self-actualize. Happiness is experienced largely in striving towards a goal, not in having attained things, because our nature is always to want to go on to the next endeavor.
-- Albert Ellis

You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.
-- Barbara Hall, A Summons to New Orleans, 2000 

The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.
-- Ben Stein

Man is born to live, not to prepare for life.
-- Boris Pasternak (1890 - 1960), Doctor Zhivago, 1958 

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
-- Brendan Gill

 Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it.
-- Christopher Morley (1890 - 1957) 

Life is full of surprises and and serendipity. Being open to unexpected turns in the road is an important part of success. If you try to plan every step, you may miss those wonderful twists and turns. Just find your next adventure-do it well, enjoy it-and then, not now, think about what comes next.
-- Condoleeza Rice 

In matters of self-control as we shall see again and again, speed kills. But a little friction really can save lives.
-- Daniel Akst, We Have Met the Enemy: Self-Control in an Age of Excess, 2011

When we exercise self-control on a given occasion, we win for ourselves a little credibility we can rely on the next time around. Pretty soon we develop a reputation to ourselves that we want badly to uphold. With each test that we meet, our resolve gains momentum, fueled by the fear that we may succumb and establish a damaging precedent for our own weakness.
-- Daniel Akst, We Have Met the Enemy: Self-Control in an Age of Excess, 2011 

Life is a thing that mutates without warning, not always in enviable ways. All part of the improbable adventure of being alive, of being a brainy biped with giant dreams on a crazy blue planet.
-- Diane Ackerman, One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, A Marriage, and the Language of Healing, 2011 

The purpose of life is to fight maturity.
-- Dick Werthimer 

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Romania.
-- Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967), Not So Deep as a Well (1937)

It's not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over.
-- Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)

Life is just one damned thing after another.
-- Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915) 

 

Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep.
-- Fran Lebowitz (1950 - )

Life is something that everyone should try at least once.
--Henry J. Tillman 

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
-- Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992) 

Life is difficult and complicated and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
-- J. K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement Address, 2008

Life is a long lesson in humility.
--James M. Barrie (1860 - 1937) 

He only earns his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) 

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
-- John Lennon (1940 - 1980), "Beautiful Boy"

In real life, however, you don't react to what someone did; you react only to what you think she did, and the gap between action and perception is bridged by the art of impression management. If life itself is but what you deem it, then why not focus your efforts on persuading others to believe that you are a virtuous and trustworthy cooperator?
-- Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, 2005 

The lessons this life has planted in my heart pertain more to caring than crops, more to Golden Rule than gold, more to the proper choice than to the popular choice.
Kirby Larson, Hattie Big Sky, 2006 

Life ain't like books. Books got somebody writin' 'em and tryin' to entertain ya. Life is more like set of Legos. Unless you take care of 'em, you lose a few pieces and you end up steppin' on 'em with bare feet. You gotta take care of your life.
Laura Moncur (1969 - ), Merriton: 35 Minutes Away From Home, 02-29-12

Nature has invented reproduction as a mechanism for life to move forward. As a life force that passes right through us and makes us a link in the evolution of life.
Louis Schwartzberg, TED, the hidden beauty of pollination, March 2011

Life is fickle; the fair man doesn't invariably win.
Mark Hodder, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack 

(Burton & Swinburne in), 2010

The secret of a good life is to have the right loyalties and hold them in the right scale of values.
Norman Thomas (1884 - 1968) 

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
Brenda Gill


The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.
Ben Stein


The unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates


The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.
-- Zeno


Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
-- Hans Christian


When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me."
-- Erma Bombeck


I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
--- Elwyn Brooks White